The Bitter Professor IPA | 23rd Street Brewery

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Notes / Commercial Description:
The Bitter Proffesor IPA is an American West Coast IPA possess a nice light caramel taste leaving a crisp mouthfeel and is accented with small amounts of spiciness. Hopped with Amarillo, Cascade and Simcoe hops pleasant grapefruit and tangerine flavors and aroma are noted.

More User Reviews:

The Bitter Professor was a great sample from Lawrence, KS. Wife was down there and completed her first 1/2 Iron Woman and brought back a growler for me :)! The beer poured a nice copper color with thin head that did not leave much lace. The scent included bitter hops but also some citrus and pine. The taste was near to the smell. The mouthfeel was medium in body with good carbonation. Overall it is a good beer....I wish I could have tried more from 23rd Street.

Had on-tap at the brewery, 1/26/2014. Served in a pint glass (which I had to ask for - unless you ask they automatically serve everything in a giant 26-oz mug which is usually more than I want. Note to 23rd Street Brewery: inform your customers of the options better rather than automatically bringing out the most expensive option.)

Anyway, on to the beer.

It poured a darkish copper color with a 1-finger rocky head. It's certainly on the darker side for an IPA. The head went down quickly but left nice lacing. The smell was disappointing - a relatively faint piney aroma and not much else.

The taste pretty much followed the smell, though the pine came through a little bit more strong. Not much of an aftertaste and very little malt backbone to speak of. Certainly no citrusy notes like I would expect from a purportedly "West Coast" IPA. Mouthfeel is okay though on the thin side.

Overall this one is just really watery and not that impressive. You'd think that at 7.2% ABV it would have a bit more malt backbone and flavor but it drank more like 4% ABV; in all fairness the best comparison I have for the taste is some of the "session IPAs" like Stone Levitation and Boulevard Pop-Up IPA: basically just hoppy water. A disappointing beer from a local brewery that I want to support but needs to raise the bar a bit.

Pours a medium copper amber with an off white head and a decent amount of lacing as it makes its way down. Nose is rather muted--I get some citrus and floral notes, but not too much in the way of overall hop character. A bit of a bready malt backbone comes through. The taste is similar in that nothing really stands out, although the malt and hops do blend together into a decent whole. Medium mouthfeel with good carbonation. Not much alcohol taste, especially given the high abv on this. Fairly good drinkability. Not a bad beer, but nothing I'd really seek out.

Not what I was expecting from an IPA, and I mean that in a good way. I like strong hop bite, which this has but it also has a distinct maltiness to it which made it really stand out. There was also a taste of citrus in there as well. Nice body and texture.This was grabbed my tongue as I first tasted it but there was no strong aftertaste. That made it nicely drinkable.